A study in contrasts

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On one hand: ACORN employees give advice to professed criminals about hiding income from the IRS and establishing underage brothels, and are stripped of government funding.

On the other hand: Blackwater officials pay millions in government bribes to cover up the killing of 17 civilians and still retain government contracts worth millions.

So, give advice to criminals? Bad. Kill people? Low-level prosecutions and continued government money.

I say this not to make excuses for what those ACORN employees did, because fuck them. ACORN has done good work in the past, but there’s no letting those employees off the hook for that 13-year-olds at the brothel crap. I don’t care how well-funded that sting operation was, there’s no excuse.

But when is Blackwater–the whole of the organization, not just low-level employees–going to face congressional sanctions for what its people did?

Tragedy is when I cut my finger…

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I was going to put this link into a “Randomness” link compilation post, like this:

Texting teen falls into open manhole. Oh, how I laughed. via tnh’s Particles

Go ahead and read it. I’ll be waiting here.

Done? Good. Did you laugh? I already admitted that I laughed, too. But I still feel sorry for that kid.

Now, I’ve heard a couple people say what a shame it is that her mom plans to sue over this, but I’m on their side (pending further facts, ‘natch). Leaving aside the fact that Americans aren’t nearly as litigious as our culture seems to think, workers shouldn’t leave an open manhold without warning cones or something around it. I don’t really care if she was texting at the time. What if she’d been distracted by something else? What if she’d been in the middle of an intense conversation with the friend beside her? What if she’d been on her cell, trying to get the latest on her grandmother’s ailing health?

By all reports, texting is incredibly distracting. Almost off-the-scale distracting. But that doesn’t mean the incident was all her fault. Workers have been cordoning off open manholes for longer than text-capable phones have been around, and for good reason. So I hope she gets a settlement that helps cover her doctor visit, at least.

I still laughed at the story, though.

11/11

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My seven year old son made this

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DomoNation.com: duplicator by ding ding

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It’s free and fun!

Attention history buffs:

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FORTUNE’S FAVORITE: Sir Charles Douglas and the Breaking of the Line just came out. It was written by a friend of mine, Chris Valin, and represents the expansion of his master’s thesis about his own ancestor, a Royal Naval captain who played a major role in the Relief of Quebec, the Battle of Valcour Island, and the “breaking of the line” at the Battle of the Saints.

It’s being published by a well-regarded small press specializing in nautical history and historical fiction, Fireship Press, who also publishes Alaric Bond. I’m really excited for him.

Here’s something nice for the shelf

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Look what arrived today, courtesy of my editor:

Child of Fire PW Top 100 Scan

Yeah, that looks nice. :)

Does this sound dirty?

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Because I’m going to link to myself.

I’ve spoken before about Wordplay.com, and how much I learned there about writing and storytelling. Well, after a friend posted a note there about my PW Best of 2009 listing, (I’ve linked to that list enough times, haven’t I? I don’t want to seem like I’m self-promoting feverishly) a couple of regulars had questions about novel-writing and publishing.

What could I do but answer? The thread is here, but it’ll age off the main message board after a while, so I’ll try to update this link when the thread hits the archives. They’re long answers, too, with a lot of detail I don’t normally write about, and with all that detail collected into one place.

Anyway, I post this not just so people can read it, if they’re interested, but so that people with more experience than I have can post contrasting experiences, or point out where I’m wrong, or even add to the general knowledge base. It’s a terrific site, with an interesting mix of professional screenwriters and serious amateurs, and I’m sure any additional information that folks can add would be more than welcome, I’m sure.

Reviews of Child of Fire, part 4

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As usual, links and excerpts behind the cut:

Continue reading

Watch this. You won’t be sorry.

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A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

via Suvudu

Health care reform with private insurers

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Ezra Klein has a fascinating interview with Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson here (Part one | Part two).

It’s no surprise that he’s not a fan of nationalized single-payor system, but the man makes a good case and he brings up great points. It’s no secret that KP is one of the leading lights in U.S. health care (no snickering!) and if this issue interests you, check out what the man has to say.

Money quote:

The Commonwealth study looked at 5 million claims across a broad population and asked how much care shouldn’t have happened. They concluded that of $2 trillion spent, $500 billion was for the wrong care. Milliman did the same study but asked what would happen if we took the practices of the best medical plans, how much will we save? They got $500 billion.